Aurelio's Dilemma

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

Raindrops pattered against the window. Aurelio straightened and glanced outside through the glass. By the time he decided he should leave before it started pouring, it had started pouring. With a sigh, he stood up. Matt looked up at him. Aurelio told him that he still had to practice violin so he couldn't stay here.

Matt followed him to the doorway. "You will be soaked."

"Nah. It's like two minutes away. Plus"--Aurelio reached for his raincoat off the stand. He'd brought it along in case of a rainstorm--"Got my raincoat," he said as he wore it, then checked his pocket for his phone. He told Matt he'd see him soon and left.

As soon as he stepped off the porch, Aurelio pulled the hood over his head and walked with his hands in his pockets. Hanging out with Matt was a nice break. He hadn't had to worry about any of the confusing stuff that had been happening. But now that he was out, all the thoughts were reforming at a dizzying rate.

Aurelio forced them aside and walked faster. The rain slowed a little, so he didn't have to blink too much anymore, and this happened in time for him to catch, through his peripheral, a guy lodged in a narrow alleyway he'd just passed.

Aurelio reveresed a couple steps and glanced in. The guy was only an inch or two shorter than him, with dirty blond hair, and shaky hands trying to light a cigarette. When he moved the cigarette in his mouth, a dimple appeared in his cheek, and Aurelio's knees felt weak.

Matt?

Aurelio squinted. The alleyway was covered overhead by the balconies of the houses on either side so the rain barely came in. It was humid, and it stank. He focused on the boy once again. It was Matt. But it shouldn't be, because Aurelio had left Matt in his house. It couldn't be, because Matt's face wasn't this gaunt, his body not this frail, his eyes not this lifeless.

Not yet.

"Matt," Aurelio said cautiously, stepping nearer.

"Help me light it," the boy said. His hands were shaking too much to do it on his own.

Matt said.

Aurelio just stared. He remembered Matt coughing at the skatepark. He remembered noting how rough it had sounded. He remembered Matt's general tendancy to make himself suffer--his own words.

"Please," he insisted. "Help me."

It hurt, Matt's helpless voice, his quiet plea. Aurelio approached him warily and took the lighter. Help him, a voice in his head told him. A voice familiar to this instance. Like an awful, awful deja vu. He didn't light the cigarette for him. Instead, he held it down. "This isn't real," he said. "It can't be. I just left your place. I left you there."

"Yeah. It isn't. You know what is? This!"

Now this...this was real. The punch that Aurelio received, a strike to his stomach.

Very real, and damn painful.

The blow made Aurelio stagger back a tiny step, and his spine flattened against the wall behind him. Groaning, he held the spot, and when he looked up, the boy wasn't Matt anymore. His hair had become a shade darker and his dimples had disappeared. His voice grew sinister.

"Give me the lighter back, freak!"

Aurelio realized he was gripping the lighter like his life depended on it, hard enough to break it. The boy had been trying to tug his fingers off in vain. Aurelio also realized that the conversation had been one-sided, that this guy hadn't asked for help, so Aurelio had basically marched in and snatched his lighter from him without warning. No wonder he'd resorted to punching.